Blue
by loveadubdub
Summary: Missing scenes from 4x09, in which Sam and Blaine go shopping.


**BLUE**

…

He doesn't even really know what Brittany's talking about.

He doesn't have any idea why anybody would care who she was dating, and he definitely doesn't know why they'd try to hurt _him _over it. Okay, he _is _a little bit scared of Santana, but that's because she's a crazy bitch, and he knows it firsthand. She's always kind of had it out for him, and even though they can sometimes get along, he's still pretty sure she wouldn't be thrilled with him trying to date Brittany. Even though _she's _the one who broke up with her. It's a giant double standard on her part, but he seriously doubts she'd see it like that.

And okay, Brittany's been upset for a long time over the whole Santana thing. He's spent a whole lot of nights on the phone with her while she talks about how sad she is and how she doesn't even really understand what happened with her and Santana. Sam can't really blame her for being confused because it all sounds kind of crazy to him. He can't understand why anybody would break up with somebody they supposedly love just because they don't want to deal with distance. If you love somebody and you're lucky enough to have them, you should hang onto them no matter what.

But that's what he told Blaine, too, and Blaine just told him he doesn't "get it."

So maybe he doesn't. But honestly, he just can't imagine that distance is that much of a big deal if you're really in love. He tried and tried to get Mercedes last year, but she told him she just wanted to be friends. She's in LA now, and they hardly talk, so maybe distance does have something to do with it, but still. If they were together, he'd bend over backwards to make it work. Stuff like that is worth the effort. Being in _love _makes it worth it.

But maybe he's just super idealistic.

All he knows now is that he finally got the balls up to tell Brittany the truth, and she turned away from his kiss and told him that they can't be together.

So once again, he's just some loser confessing his feelings in a classroom, trying to make a move, and getting shot down. Seriously, you'd think he would learn his damn lesson by now.

…

He doesn't ignore Brittany or anything. He still likes her, and she's one of his best friends, so he doesn't want to like make things awkward between them or whatever. But it _is _kind of weird now.

He mostly just tries to act as normal as possible. Like he goes to class and tries to pay attention and stuff. School kind of sucks now, though, because glee's over, and he's not doing football or anything, so all the fun stuff's gone. It's basically just class and tests and homework, and he's never really been super awesome at any of that stuff.

He's in chemistry, and he doesn't really have any friends in that class, so it's pretty boring. He's totally lost, so he just gives up trying to follow along with what Mr. Meider is saying and just puts all his effort into staying awake until the bell rings. Lunch is next, and that's his favorite part of the day besides gym. So he's super glad when class is finally over and he can bail.

He gets to the cafeteria and gets his food and everything, but he almost thinks he's at the wrong table because there are way too many Cheerios there. Then he realizes what's going on, and all he can say is, "What the hell?" Because seriously. What the hell?

There's Brittany… And Kitty has apparently decided to grace them with her presence today… But those aren't the only Cheerios. Tina's there, wearing a Cheerios uniform and unwrapping a turkey sandwich, and then there's _Blaine _looking like God only knows what wearing some boy version of the Cheerios uniform and looking more than a little uncomfortable.

Blaine just says, "Dude," in this quiet voice and shakes his head like it shouldn't be mentioned out loud or something.

Screw that.

Sam sets his tray down and slides into the empty chair beside him. He considers trying to eat for like five seconds, but he literally cannot stop staring at the alternate universe taking place around him. He even wonders if he's in some kind of dream or parallel world or something, but even unconscious, he can't stop staring.

Finally, Blaine sets his fork down and looks at him. "What?" he asks flatly, and Sam just shakes his head.

"I'm just trying to figure out what the hell you're wearing."

"It's a Cheerios uniform, Sam."

"Yeah, thanks." He just stares at him some more and waits for some kind of explanation, but Blaine doesn't do anything but stare back. Finally, he just says, "_Why?"_

"Because Tina and I joined the Cheerios."

Sam looks back over at Tina who's giving him some kind of death glare that she only recently perfected. It's like she's daring him to say something, but he's not dumb enough to engage her or whatever. She's turned kind of psycho lately, and he's totally cool with staying out of her line of fire.

"You should join the Cheerios, too, Sam." Brittany works at opening her milk carton and flips her ponytail over her shoulder. "We can always use more boys."

"More boys who know their right from their left maybe." Kitty sounds just as mean as she always does, but she stops herself before she says anything else. Instead, she just rolls her eyes and looks down at her lunch like there's a lot more she wants to say but can't. He's not even sure why she's sitting with them, and Tina's apparently wondering the same thing.

"Why are you even here? Now that glee's over, you can go back to pretending like we don't exist."

Sam expects Kitty to snap back, but she doesn't. She just says, "Fine. Whatever," and gets up to dump her tray before she leaves the cafeteria without eating anything.

"Seriously, why is she still hanging around us?" Tina doesn't even sound remotely apologetic, and nobody seems to really blame her.

But then Marley sits down and says, "She doesn't have a lot of friends."

Tina just kind of glares at her, too- she's not Marley's biggest fan at the moment, either. She doesn't say anything, though. Nobody does. It's kind of awkward.

Sam decides to change the subject, so he goes back to the obvious. "Seriously. What is happening here?" And he waves his hand up and down at Blaine's current outfit of choice.

"Glee's over. I need something to do."

"Dude, you're in like every club in the entire school."

"Well, it's not like there's a chance to be national champs in the sewing club, now is there?"

Sam's just going to ignore the whole sewing club thing because… yeah. He can't get past the cheerleading thing. It just… Wow.

"We need something for our college applications. You should be thinking about that, too, Sam," and Tina sounds all-knowing like this is absolutely a fact or something. Sam doesn't feel like talking about that, so he just kind of ignores it.

It doesn't matter anyway because Artie rolls up right then in _the _most ridiculous looking outfit he's ever seen, and any kind of coherent sentence he might have been about to say goes straight out the window.

…

Brittany kisses him in the hallway.

He's not totally sure what made her change her mind, but she tells him that she's tired of wasting time not being happy and tells him that he's the only thing that makes her smile. It feels really awesome to hear somebody say such nice things about him.

And it feels even better to finally kiss her.

…

He's got a date Friday night and like nothing to wear.

He knows that makes him sound like a girl or something, but it's the truth. He wants to look nice, but the only things in his closet are jeans, some t-shirts, a few hoodies, and like a whole bunch of plaid. It's not like he wants to wear a suit or anything, but a nice shirt and some jeans that aren't like fraying at the bottom would be cool. He hasn't been shopping in a long time, and the last time he got new clothes was probably the stuff his mom bought him for Christmas last year.

So he texts Blaine while he's in English and asks if he wants to go shopping after school. He's kind of surprised when he gets an answer because Blaine's usually against stuff like texting during class, but he texts back almost right away and says yes and to meet him in the parking lot.

So, yeah. Cool.

…

Blaine's pretty rich.

This isn't like brand new information or anything, but it's not something that comes up all the time or anything. He's got two super successful parents and this awesome famous brother. So it's not like he's hurting for money or anything. He drives to the mall, which is cool because his car's way better and plus it means Sam doesn't have to waste the gas in his truck, so that's cool, too. Luckily he has some spare clothes, so he doesn't have to wear that Cheerios uniform to the mall. Sam almost tells him not to change, just because he kind of likes making fun of him, but he doesn't because Blaine looks super ready to get out of that outfit.

But when they get to the mall, Blaine heads straight for one of the most expensive stores, and Sam has to follow him even though there's no way in hell he could even afford a pair of socks in here. He's already told Blaine about his date and how he wants to find something nice, but Blaine's definition of "nice" is actually _nice, _while Sam's definition is something decent off the sales rack at JCPenney.

He feels like the sales associates are judging him the second they walk into the store, like they can smell the poor on him or something. Nobody offers to help them, but Blaine doesn't seem to notice or care. He just starts walking between the rows of clothes looking at stuff until he finds a shirt and pulls it off the rack.

"This is nice." He holds it up against Sam to see it better and kind of tilts his head. "You should try it on."

Sam glances down at the sleeve and sees the price tag. Yeah, no. "I don't think so."

"Seriously," Blaine says, totally ignoring him. "Green's your color. This looks really good."

Sam just pushes the shirt away and chews on his lip a little bit. He's embarrassed, but he needs to put an end to this before it even starts. "Dude, I can't afford anything in here." He lowers his voice a lot, hoping to make it impossible for other people to overhear.

The look on Blaine's face basically makes him feel like crap. It's that pity look that he hates because he seriously doesn't want anybody's pity. He doesn't see it all the time now or anything, but a couple of years ago, when things were super bad, he used to see it all the time. People at church and stuff would always look at him like he was some kind of charity case that they needed to save or something, and he hated it. Now Blaine's kind of looking at him like that and also kind of like he's embarrassed and just stuck his foot in his mouth or something. Sam watches as he puts the shirt back on its rack and tries to pretend like things aren't as weird as they are.

"Let's go somewhere else."

Sam just rolls his eyes, though. "It's cool if you want to look around in here." He doesn't want to make Blaine feel bad or guilty or whatever. If he wants to buy stuff in here for himself, it's fine. They're not in any hurry. "I just need to go to a different store before we leave."

"No, it's okay. Let's go."

"Seriously, man. It's cool. For real. Keep shopping if you want to."

"No, I don't need anything in here. Where do you want to go?"

Sam hates how it's like instantly weird. He didn't mean to make it that way, and he seriously wishes they would just stay in this damn store until Blaine finds something he wants to buy. He hates feeling like some kind of pity case, but he hates making other people feel awkward even more. He doesn't have a lot of money- he's basically pretty much poor. That's just how it is. Stuff happens, and sometimes that stuff is bad. His family's slowly but surely getting back on their feet, but they're still getting government benefits and still barely making it paycheck to paycheck. But that's their life. It is what it is, and Sam learned to deal with it a long time ago. He doesn't need other people feeling guilty just because they're not in the same crappy boat.

But Blaine's like totally set on getting the hell out of this store and going somewhere else. Sam gives up trying to make it less awkward and just follows him. It's basically the least embarrassing option anyway.

"So where are you going again? Breadstix?"

Sam can totally tell Blaine's just trying to change the subject while they walk, but he doesn't call him out on it. Instead, he just plays along because it's the easiest thing to do. "Yeah. Brittany said she got the VIP booth."

"Breadstix has a VIP booth?" Blaine side-eyes him, and Sam just shrugs.

"I guess. That's what she said anyway."

"I don't really like that place."

Sam shrugs. "It's alright. I never really got the big deal about it or whatever. It's okay, but Olive Garden is way better."

Blaine kind of laughs, and Sam's not really sure why. Olive Garden is awesome. It's the best Italian food in the world. Or at least whatever parts of the world Sam's been to, which really isn't a lot to be honest. Blaine's probably like actually been to Italy or something, so maybe Olive Garden doesn't impress him. But whatever. That place is the best.

The carbs, though…

They head into a much cheaper store than the one they just left, and even though the clothes might not be as nice or whatever, the prices are a _ton _better. Sam doesn't feel like throwing up when he looks at the price tags, so that's a good thing. He's got his part-time job back delivering pizzas, but he only works a few nights a week, and the tips aren't all that amazing. Or maybe he's just spoiled because the last job he had paid _way _more than he's making now. Either way, he doesn't make much money, and it's definitely not like his parents have anything to send him and supplement his income with. So he has to make due with what he's got, and that's not a whole lot.

Blaine gets right to work picking stuff out. Apparently making people over is one of his hobbies or something- or at least making _Sam _over. It's cool, though, because Sam's not really all that into clothes and stuff, so having somebody around to tell him what looks good is kind of awesome actually. It's like when his mom always picks out his stuff- he doesn't mind it or whatever, he actually kind of digs it.

"I don't need anything super fancy. I just want something that's decent. It's just Breadstix." He throws it out there as a reminder because even though he's totally down with Blaine picking out his clothes, he doesn't want to look like he's going to prom or something when he's really just going to get spaghetti. "Something like this might be cool." He picks up a green and blue plaid shirt- Blaine said green was his color after all.

But Blaine grabs it from him and hangs it back up. "You don't need anymore plaid."

Sam wants to argue that he likes it, but he doesn't. It's not worth it. Instead, he just follows Blaine toward another corner of the store where he pulls a blue and white polo off the rack. "This is nice."

"I thought you said green."

"Well, green matches your eyes, but you're kind of blessed with that whole blonde hair, fair skin, everything looks good on you thing."

"My mom always said blondes can't wear yellow."

"That's a myth. I'll prove it in the spring."

Sam doesn't know what that means exactly, but he's assuming it's something about seasonal colors or whatever. He doesn't have a clue about that stuff, though, so he just nods. Blaine pulls a few more shirts off the shelf and hands them to Sam before he moves over to the jeans and starts digging through the stacks on the display table.

"Hey," Sam moves over right beside him and kind of lowers his voice in case anyone's eavesdropping. There's nobody around, but you can never be too sure, right? "She kissed me, too."

"Who, Brittany?" Blaine stops what he's doing and looks up.

"No, Coach Sylvester. Yes, Brittany."

"When did she kiss you?"

"In the hallway. When she asked me out." He smiles a little bit thinking about it.

"And how was that?"

"Well, I've kind of been wanting to kiss her for awhile, so… It was pretty damn awesome."

Blaine just looks at him for a few seconds and then nods slowly. "Well, that's cool."

"Dude. You could try like being happy or something, couldn't you?" He's kind of offended a little bit. Blaine knows how much he likes Brittany- he's pretty much the only person who does because he's the only person Sam really trusts like that. So it kind of sucks that he doesn't really seem to give a crap.

"I'm happy she likes you because I know how much you like her." Blaine sighs a little bit. "I'm just kind of worried that this isn't going to end well."

"Why not?"

"Well, for one thing, Santana might actually kill you."

"Santana broke up with her. They're not together. It's not like I'm getting Brittany to cheat or anything- _which, _by the way, is exactly what Santana did when Britt was dating Artie."

"Brittany dated Artie?" Blaine's eyebrows kind of go up, and Sam nods.

"Yeah, it was before you got here."

And then Blaine just shakes his head. "Whatever. I know you're not doing anything wrong. But Santana's kind of crazy and not exactly rational."

"I'm not afraid of Santana."

That's a lie. He's actually kind of terrified of Santana. She's threatened him with bodily harm on like ten different occasions, and he basically believed her every time. She's a little bit psychotic and a whole lot mean. Plus, she's a girl, so it's not even like he'd be allowed to really defend himself if she snuck into his room in the middle of the night and tried to cut him with the razor blades she says are stashed in her extensions. But he's not admitting any of that.

"Okay, well, even if you're not scared of Santana, aren't you a little worried about, I don't know… being the rebound?"

Sam just stares at him. Blaine's his friend, and he gets that he probably thinks he's being helpful right now or something, but dude. "It's been two months since they broke up." He doesn't really mean to add, "Just because you can't get over Kurt doesn't mean other people can't move on," but it comes out anyway.

Blaine doesn't say anything, but he does bite down on the inside of his lip like he's trying really hard not to snap or something. Or maybe he's just hurt or mad or something. Sam feels bad almost instantly, and he frowns because he hates hurting people's feelings.

"Look, I'm sorry," he says, and he really is. "I just really like her, okay?"

Blaine nods, but he doesn't say anything. He just goes back to digging through the jeans, and Sam knows he's still upset even if he won't admit it. But really, it's not a lie. He really, really likes Brittany, and it basically gets worse all the time. It's like the crush that won't quit or something, even though he's tried to just be her friend. He knows she's kind of fresh out of a pretty serious relationship, but he waited two months to tell her how he feels, and he didn't even say it then until he was almost sure she at least sort offelt the same way. He's not interested in getting his heart broken, either- he's kind of had enough of that to last him a lifetime, thanks.

"They're not together. Brittany should just be glad Santana had the decency to actually tell her they were breaking up. She couldn't even be bothered to send me a text about dumping me when _we _were going out, she just started dating somebody else."

That gets Blaine to stop again, and he looks up. "Wait a second. _You _dated Santana?"

Sam just shrugs. "Obviously it was a long time ago. McKinley _did _exist before you got here, dude."

That gets Blaine to laugh a little, and he jokes around and says, "I'm sure it sucked a lot more, though."

Sam just rolls his eyes. "Yeah, totally."

Blaine shoves a few pairs of jeans at him and says, "Go try this stuff on," before pushing him in the direction of the dressing rooms. Sam doesn't argue or whatever, just does what he's told and starts pulling on the clothes, so somebody else can tell him what looks good.

It's a lot easier than trying to figure it out for himself.

…

He ends up with two shirts and a new pair of jeans. Even with the sale prices, he's still basically broke, so he's going to have to try and pick up an extra shift at the pizza place because he needs some money for the actual date. Even though Brittany's technically the one who asked him out, he's still going to pay for everything because that's what you're supposed to do. If he can't get a shift between now and then, he might could see if Finn needs any extra help at the garage or something. He just needs something, so he's not totally broke.

"You know it's supposed to snow Friday, right?" They're walking back through the mall because Blaine wants to look at coats. He says he needs something "casual." Sam doesn't really know what the big deal is- he basically has one coat that he wears all winter, and he uses it for everything. Blaine apparently needs different coats for different events or something.

Sam did not actually know that there's snow in the forecast. He's not the biggest fan of snow, and he kind of hates that about Ohio. He's used to Tennessee where it snows once or twice a year, and maybe an inch or two sticks to the ground if it's really bad. He also doesn't like the fact that Ohio apparently doesn't believe in snow days because in Tennessee, just the _call _for snow could get school canceled. That was kind of the best part about snow. Basically the _only _good part.

So, here there are like _no _good parts.

"We should get everyone together this weekend and go ice skating or something." Blaine sounds all idealistic or something like maybe in his head, everyone skates around and sings or something.

"I don't know how." Sam shakes his head. "I can barely even roller skate. My little sister's better than me." That's not a lie. Stacy may only be seven, but she's been able to skate since she was like four, something Sam's never exactly mastered. He's not like the most coordinated person in the world or anything.

"You don't know how to skate? How are you even alive?"

Sam raises an eyebrow because he's not really sure if that's a real question or not. He can't really think of too many life-threatening situations where ice skating would be a really useful skill. Not unless you're like being chased by a polar bear or the abominable snowman or something. And even then, snowshoes would probably be better footwear than skates.

"I am teaching you how to skate." Blaine says this like it's a done deal, but Sam just kind of laughs.

"I'm not really interested in falling on my ass and breaking my tailbone."

"You're not gonna fall on your ass."

Sam shakes his head. "Uh, have you seen me? I can pretty much fall down anywhere at any time."

Blaine laughs and rolls his eyes a little bit before he starts pushing coats around. Apparently these aren't the "casual" kind he was looking for or whatever because he doesn't find anything. He moves over to another section and starts pushing through stuff there. Sam once again makes the mistake of glancing at a couple of price tags and almost feels lightheaded trying to imagine spending that much on a coat he's not even going to wear all the time. It's insane. But he doesn't say anything because he's already made Blaine uncomfortable enough.

"Do you like this one?" Blaine pulls a coat down and holds it up in front of him.

"It's very… brown."

"Is that a problem?" Blaine sounds confused, and Sam just shrugs.

"It just kind of looks like doodoo."

"Did you just say doodoo?"

"So?"

Blaine just stares at him, like he's totally dumbfounded or something, and then he slowly shakes his head. He hangs the coat up and walks over toward a display of scarves and stuff. Sam follows him, still kind of wondering what's wrong with doodoo.

"I have a dark blue coat already. I might just use it and get a new scarf or something." Blaine's apparently over the poop talk because now he's looking at scarves on a table and running his fingers over them to see how they feel or whatever.

"Gray looks good with blue. Or like red." Sam figures he can at least throw out his opinion, considering the fact that he literally just let Blaine pick out his clothes for him. Like he's his mom or his girlfriend or something. Something catches his eye, and he leans over Blaine to grab it. "Or something like this. It's gray _and _red. And blue."

Blaine takes the scarf from him and unfolds it. "This is kind of nice." Sam feels pretty pleased with himself because it evens the shopping field a little bit or something. "Hey, there's a hat that matches." They walk around the table to a wall display where hats and gloves are laid out. Blaine's right- there's a hat that matches the scarf almost perfectly.

"You could just get that, and then get a coat later if you find one you like or whatever. I saw a commercial, I think Old Navy's supposed to be having a sale next week."

Blaine kind of looks at him out of the corner of his eye, but he doesn't say anything. Sam feels like a dumbass when he realizes Blaine probably doesn't shop at Old Navy. It doesn't matter anyway because Blaine's reaching for another hat, similar to the one that matches his scarf.

"This matches your jacket," he says, and before Sam knows it, he's got the hat pulled down over his head and is steering him toward a mirror. "Looks good."

It doesn't look bad. It's just a hat, but it does match pretty well with the coat Sam's currently wearing- the same one he'll be wearing all winter. Still, though. "Yeah, but thirty dollar hats aren't really my kind of thing…" He pulls it off and hands it back, but Blaine doesn't put it up.

Instead, he adds it to the pile of winter accessories in his own arms. "Merry Christmas."

"No, seriously." Sam shakes his head. "I really don't need a hat. I've got one in my closet somewhere."

"Tis the season, right?" Blaine just shrugs one shoulder and walks off like he doesn't want to be argued with. Sam sighs a little bit, but he figures Blaine's already made up his mind. He doesn't want any charity, but he also doesn't want to seem ungrateful. It's kind of a difficult spot.

He catches up to him somewhere around a display of watches and just says, "Thanks, dude," because he doesn't know what else to say. Something tells him not to make a huge deal about it.

"Do you think blue or red?" Blaine ignores him and holds out two pairs of gloves for opinions.

"Blue."

And Blaine nods and drops the red ones back to the table. Sam just follows him to the cash register after that and tries not to pay attention to the numbers ringing up on the computer screen. He watches as the hats get scanned and then placed into the bag. They're really similar, and everyone's probably going to think they purposely went shopping to pick out matching hats.

Somehow, he's pretty okay with that.

…


End file.
